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Posts published in February 1999

Who Burned Fort Bragg & Why (Part 4)

Superior Janitorial's distinctive red van was a familiar sight in late night Fort Bragg. Peter Durigan, Superior's owner, went to work about midnight with his wife Irene, formerly Irene Specie. The two Durigans were assisted by a series of young people who helped the couple sweep, mop, scrub, and tidy up businesses as various as several restaurants and bars, both branches of the Savings Bank of Mendocino in Mendocino and Fort Bragg, and even the Pacific Bell Telephone facility in downtown Fort Bragg.

Millennium Fever

A transcript of the KZYX radio show "Two Girls on the World" which aired on February 3, 1999. Clarissa Shaeffer: We have been talking about the Y2K matter. Barbara Lamb: We certainly have. I’ve been…

The City of Fort Bragg is Bankrupt

Reading the City of Fort Bragg’s annual budget package each June for the past seven years has been like trying to divine meaning from goat entrails. Questions about the City's financial status have been asked…

Bangelot

Perusing my correspondence, I see that one year ago almost to the day is when I started into this whole thing. It happened that I was down in New York trying to gain an audience…

Willy Loman As Arsonist (Part 3)

Vince Sisco began his working life in Stockton where he and other members of his family ran bars and restaurants, most famously in the old Stockton Hotel. He enjoyed a certain success in the business early on and, by 1970 when he arrived in Mendocino County, Sisco was in his early 40's. He soon earned a reputation for deals whose wheels came off.

Y2K or Not?

I don’t have the facts on this issue. A friend was just saying that I never let the facts get in the way of anything I write. This is not objective journalism or fact-based investigative…

Cuba in the Global Era

As the Aerocaribe DC-9 began to descend into Havana, 45 minutes after it took off from Cancun, Mexico I read that Fidel Castro was preparing to leave Cuba for Venezuela to attend the inauguration of…

Killing for Honor

On X-Mas day, 1967, I went to my first and last sermon. We were guarding the perimeter of a forward artillery base carved into some nameless mountaintop in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. For once the sweet…

Clinton’s Acquittal

There are two ways to look at Bill Clinton’s persecution, both of them valid, one inspiriting and the other dismal. The inspiriting truth about the long scandal, terminated by senatorial acquittal of the president last…

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